Black-Ass Women Actors Made the Decade
Welcome to the 57th installment of This Black-Ass Life! We thought our last newsletter was the last of the year, but then realized we failed to include the Black women actors who flourished in the 2010s. Please excuse our oversight and we wish you a happy holiday and new year!
Don’t forget: We've managed to grow this list thanks to y'all forwarding to friends so please keep it up! Forward this link to subscribe to five friends. And send us topics you'd like to see covered, texts from your Black-ass people, and any Black-ass anything from around the world and web.
l. The Facts
Black women actors ruled the big and small screens across genres. This list is long, but still doesn't cover every Black woman who took the industry by storm this decade.
Issa Rae captured our hearts and laughs with Awkward Black Girl and Insecure. Next up is The Photograph and The Lovebirds. Read Issa, in her own words, on her journey to creating and starring in her own stories.
The most underrated Hollywood Hottie, Niecy Nash, taught us how to clean our homes then cracked us up on Scream Queens. Mama has range and also played dramatic roles in Selma, When They See Us, and Claws.
Viola Davis may have had the most prolific acting career of any actor this decade. She’s won an Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy, BET Award, Golden Globe, Black Reel Award, Tony Award, Critic’s Choice Award and more in the past decade from her roles on the big and small screen.
Robin Thede created an amazing late night political show and then when that went off the air, she created one of the best sketch shows of the decade. A Black Lady Sketch show features Robin Thede, Quinta Brunson, Ashley Nicole Black and Gabrielle Dennis. Please check it out now.
Kerry Washington’s iconic portrayal of Olivia Pope moved us all to demand our president baes “earn us,” trust our gut, find our gladiators and declare “it’s handled.”
Karrueche Tran overcame so much and now stars on Claws and has an Emmy to her name.
Jodie Turner-Smith’s stunning portrayal in Queen & Slim solidified her place in the industry and she’s great on Nightflyers. The range!
Chandra Wilson has played Dr. Miranda Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy for practically as long as Gen-Z has existed. Queen.
Janelle Monae has dominated music this decade but she also gave us beautiful, understated, heart-warming performances in Moonlight, Hidden Figures, Welcome to Marwen and more.
Uzo Aduba is SO talented that she is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award in both the comedy and drama categories for the same role.
Taraji P. Henson can do action (see: Proud Mary), juicy drama (see: Empire), messy fun (see: the legitimately fun What Men Want), trifling (see: Baby Boy), mom of karate star (see: Karate Kid) and more. She’s been in the game for decades and is just now getting her due. Her Golden Globes acceptance speech and Women in Film speech always get me (Mitu).
Octavia Spencer has been in the game for DECADES and is finally getting her due on both sides of the camera.
Regina Hall has also been in the industry for a long time and gave us HITS this past decade with Best Man Holiday and the perfect movie Girls Trip. Watch her in the criminally underrated Support The Girls.
Jada Pinkett Smith came back with a vengeance with Girls Trip and then started holding these beautiful, honest, intergenerational conversations with her gorgeous mother and daughter on Red Table Talk.
Actor, director, voice artist extraordinaire Regina King finally got her due with an Oscar for If Beale Street Could Talk. And she’s one of EW’s 2019 Entertainers of the Year.
Lupita Nyong'o can rap, do hair and act her face off. Lupita snatched awards left and right this decade then delighted us with her alter ego Troublemaker.
Gabourey Sidibe was a scene stealer on Hulu’s Difficult People and dominates on Empire. But I (Mitu) would also strongly recommend reading her book, This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare.
Gabrielle Union has been in the news lately for standing by her convictions and putting the whole team on her back. But, if you haven’t already, please watch her in Being Mary Jane and Almost Christmas (‘tis the season!). Also, read her perfect book, We're Going to Need More Wine.
Special shout out to the youth:
Future Harvard grad Yara Shahidi made us fall in love with her through her portrayal of Zoe Johnson on Black-ish then showed us she can lead her own show well with Grown-ish.
Amandla Stenberg is only 21-years-old and has been challenging Hollywood norms for years.
Zendaya made the difficult transition from Disney look easy with her roles in Spider-Man, The Greatest Showman and maybe-the-most-discussed-show-this-year Euphoria.
Bey-certified Chloe x Halle can’t stop dropping perfect music and serving as the best comedic relief on Grown-ish. And now Halle is ready to be Ariel.
Marsai Martin is the youngest person in Hollywood ever to produce a movie, Little, and she is legendary in her portrayal of Diane on Black-ish. Mama has even more projects coming our way with her production company aptly named Genius Productions.
Quvenzhané Wallis has been nominated for ALL the awards and has starred in productions including Trolls, Bey’s Lemonade, Annie, Black-ish and 12 Years A Slave, among other productions.
Noted Ape Shit dancer Storm Reid traveled space and time through A Wrinkle in Time and is now stressing us all out in the best way on Euphoria.
II. Other Things
Our Black-Ass song(s) of the week (Mitu):
Mariah is finally number one, stream AIWFCIY and keep her there please!
lll. Text from a Black-Ass Dad
A reminder to stay safe as you travel here and there.
Stay Black, thrive and invest in Black women. We’ll hit your inbox next on January 6.